Looking Back: The Elian Gonzalez Story
Ten years ago today this was the top story across the nation:
April 22, 2000. (Alan Diaz/AP) hide caption
April 22, 2000. (Alan Diaz/AP)
"Ten years later," the Associated Press writes, the home in Miami where little Elian Gonzalez had been living after his rescue at sea "is a museum dedicated to Elian's brief time in this country, but visitors are rare."
Elian, as the Miami Herald reminds its readers today:
"Was the boy whose story hit Miami with the force of a Category 5 hurricane, the boy whose mother died at sea when their boat sank in their escape from Cuba. Adrift alone, the boy clung to an inner tube for two days before he was rescued by fisherman. He came to live with his closest living relatives, the Gonzalezes of Northwest Second Street."
The international legal drama that followed his rescue dominated the news for months. Eventually, after agents took Elian away on April 22, 2000, to be reunited with his father, the boy was allowed to go back to Cuba with his dad. And now, the Herald adds, his story still leaves a mark on the "once-quiet street" in Miami where he briefly lived: "A decade after Elian was taken away, his former neighbors still convene as a sort of group therapy."
And what is life like for Elian today? In tightly controlled Cuba it's impossible for outsiders to truly know. But earlier this month, Elian did attend a Young Communist Union congress in Havana. So, we can at least pass along a photo of the now-16-year-old young man:
April 3, 2010. Elian Gonzalez. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina) hide caption
April 3, 2010. Elian Gonzalez. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina)